This would surely be easy enough: someone who is 1) disgusted with the situation on Manus Island, and 2) has deepish pockets, or 3) some organisation willing to start a crowdfunding campaign for it, could run the ad below or something like it, as a half-pager in The Guardian, The New York Times and other august publications.
The wording could change, the email addresses responses are directed to, etc. But the message would need to be kept short and sharp. Social media reinforcement would follow the initial ad.
It’s clear that we are now at the limits of what can be done in Australia. Protests must continue, but an international response must be sought from within Australia. Some might question whether turning against your own country like this is the thing to do. This is one of those cases where it’s the only thing to do:
(Click to enlarge)
Today I telephoned Peter Dutton’s office in Parliament House, Canberra, with the intention of leaving a comment supporting voluntary medical aid to travel to Manus to tend the refugees. I was told by an underling, Josh, that no comments are being taken, the only method of sending a message is via email or letter.
Imagine how easy emails are to ignore…or, in the case of writing, how long the Minister may take to send a rote letter of acknowledgment. Weeks? Months? Never?
So here we have it, Australia: government MPs such as Dutton are keen to kiss our babies, schmooze at shopping centres & generally make our skin crawl when rallying votes leading up to an election. But once ensconced in Canberra they don’t want to hear, see or know us. They are public servants, as are their staff – we are providing their bloated salaries/expenses/perks but, apparently, we can no longer leave a comment with an underling in the Department, we should simply naff off.
Democracy in action? Or should that read democracy inaction.
Those emails generally end up in the responsible department where a low-ranking public servant crafts a response using pre-appeoved words. Putting it another way, if you’re saying Dutton is ignoring the public, you are probably right.
It’s good he holds his seat by only about three per cent!
What an appalling state of affairs, where this is probably the only realistic option left.
Australia’s largest group of inbound tourists are Chinese
Translate that message into Chinese and distribute it via Weibo and the major daily papers and see what happens
As if the Chinese would not think it pretty damned liberal compared to the conditions under which they live & thrive.
It’s not the worst idea Guy.
Imagine that, being pressured by an apartheid-style campaign, by your own people. I had no idea as a young fellow in the 70’s that one day my own country would deserve the same treatment.
How did we get here?
Don’t answer that ‘how did we get here question’, by the way!
Media concentration.
When the media stop blathering out lies about smugglers and stuff we might get someone but the typical laziness of our shitty MSM goes like this ” we have to stop the people smugglers”, media don’t ask a question they just publish the sentence as if it’s fact.
Meanwhile the world has just watched almost 1 million Rohingya flee on boats in the last 3 months and not a single word about the people smugglers even though the Rohingya have done the same as all other refugees around the world, they paid for some form of transport which is totally fucking legal.
Sorry, Marilyn, but what? You claim the MSM is playing loose with the facts, but you claim that almost 1M Rohingya have fled “on boats”? That’s BS. Almost all fled on foot. People (boat) smugglers didn’t enter into it. You can’t blatantly lie and win hearts.